Heiress of the Twilight
by Midnight Kayari
Summary: Following the events of Daughter of the Twilight, Daughter of the Light, young Aura reaches the age she can inherrit the power of Twilight. She instead casts light magic, and the Twili want her exciled. Her twisted uncle has other plans in mind for her.
1. The Half Blood Princess

**Chapter One: The Half-Blood Princess**

Aura was running, desperately through the woods, with Queen Midna following close behind her. Everything was a blur. Everything was happening too fast. She didn't care that the black, twisted branches were clawing at every inch of her body. She was barely conscious that her beloved mother was screaming out her name in desperation to slow down. Everything that her own people, her own _family_, had said was rushing through her mind.

"_Do not deny it. You are a half-breed, and nothing more. That is why you can not wield the power of darkness! Your mother was a fool to choose a light dweller, and now the heiress to the kingdom is obsolete! You are obsolete! You do not deserve to be the true ruler of the Twilight!"_

They had said it…a member of her own race had told it to her face. She was not a true Twili. Was that why she had unnaturally blue eyes? Was that why her powers were all messed up? Was that why she could not do what other Twili could do? Was that why she had that "special power" that her mother always praised her for? It just wasn't possible. What they had said couldn't possibly be true. Why hadn't her mother told her of this? Why had she kept it a secret all of these years? And now…now she was as good as dead, and there was no way to get herself out of this mess.

But let us start from the beginning…

zzz

In the realm of the light, a large caravan of Zoras was making its way north towards Zora's Domain. It carried a princess of the Zora tribe of Labrynna, who would be getting married that very evening to the Prince of the Zora Tribe of Hyrule, along with several of her handmaidens and personal guards, along with favored members of her family. This arranged marriage was to strengthen the bond between distanced tribes of Zoras.

Princess Rutaysu was already awake by the crack of dawn, staring into her mirror and practicing her wedding vows. She was anxiously awaiting her arrival into Zora's Domain of Hyrule. Even though this was an arranged marriage, she was more than happy, for it was not just any old Zora Prince, her beloved childhood friend and future husband, Prince Ralis.

She remembered all the times they used to play together as small children, long before they had a care in the world about the affairs of their royal lives. Back then, they had vowed to only marry each other, despite not even fully understanding what the word "marriage" meant. Princess Rutaysu would have never in a million years expected that the boy she held so dearly in her heart would be the one her father would betroth her to. She couldn't be more excited.

Rutaysu was interrupted from her thoughts when a loud thud was heard, and suddenly the wagon tipped itself over, resulting in the wagon landing viciously on its side, spilling out its inhabitants. Rutaysu herself was thrust against the ground, and her soft skull made contact with the solid rock. She soon lost consciousness, and her world went black.

zzz

It was a beautiful twilight morning. And better yet, it was Aura's sixteenth birthday, and the day of her coming of age. Today was the day she would inherit the magic of her people, and the power of darkness. Today was when she would officially earn the title of "Twilight Princess."

Sixteen years ago, Aura's mother had vanished suddenly, where no one could find her. When she returned mysteriously over a month later, she was more than eager to take over her throne once more. What was even more of a shock to the other Twili was that she was pregnant. No one really suspected her for unlawful union, and so the young queen was not questioned. People became accustomed to the story that her husband would be known in time, and that he could not be there because he had duties elsewhere. This led the Twili to believe that her husband must have been a Twili prince from another district, or perhaps another noble-born Twili man.

After Aura had been born, Young Queen Midna would journey to the world of the Light Dwellers but once a year with her daughter using the power of a mysterious pendant she wore around her neck. No one ever knew what it was that she did there, but during the times she would be gone, she would place her cousin, Itzal, in her place as a stand-in for her.

What her people did not know was that their queen was off gallivanting with a light-dweller and aiding his kind, "poisoning" her daughters mind with the ideals and behaviors of those who dwelt in the light.

But Midna never once told her daughter why they went to the realm of the light. She simply called it "vacation." Knowing that if her people ever found out about her daughter's father being one of the light dwellers, she understood that this meant she would have to hide that fact even from her own daughter until she was old enough to understand.

For all of these long years, though she had met him and been taken care of by him on numerous occasions, Aura never knew who her father was, or what he was like, except for the small tad-bits she would overhear her mother saying now and then. All she knew was that he was a great hero, and the best warrior to be born in over one hundred years. Aura's mother promised that on the day she came of age, she would tell her of her father. This was what Aura had been so desperate to learn for the past sixteen years, along with her inheritance of her people's magic. Now she would finally learn the truth that she had been promised, and she could hardly wait.

Aura sat up in her bed and yawned, a large smile stuck to her face. She stretched her arms out and inhaled deeply. It wasn't every day that things this special happened. As she looked out the window at the beautiful lavender hue of the morning twilight air, she whispered happily to herself.

"Nothing can ruin this day. Absolutely nothing."

Aura quickly got dressed in her formal robes and made her way to the throne room, where her mother and a thousand members of her people awaited her arrival. When the doors of the throne room swung open, loud cheering began to echo throughout the palace. Music began to play as soon as the cheering and roars of praise died down. Aura felt like she was on top of the world. She couldn't be happier.

She walked gracefully down the aisle that parted the crowds until she reached the throne itself, where her mother stood with open arms. The Twili bowed their heads in respect as Aura passed by them, kneeling and curtseying as they did so.

When she got to the throne, Queen Midna embraced her, and when she let go, she picked up a black tiara made purely of obsidian and sapphires from the throne and placed it on Aura's bowed head. "This," she began, "Marks your new position as the Twilight Princess."

The crowd broke out in another loud roar, shouting out cries of, "Hail Princess Aura!" and "Long live the Twilight Princess!"

Then Midna took two of her fingers and placed them on Aura's forehead, whispering for her to close her eyes. "This will pass down all of my magic to you. Now you will share the power known only to the Royal Family. Take it with respect, and take it with dignity."

Bright, blue-green light, the same color as the designs on Midna's clothing, began to swirl from the place where Midna's fingers touched Aura's forehead. They soon spread so that they engulfed her daughter completely, and Aura was now aglow in the blue-green light.

When the light died down, Midna whispered something into Aura's long, pointed ear. Aura then nodded and stuck her arm out in front of her, closing her eyes. A tiny ball of orange energy began to form in her hand. This was the first step in summoning the dark magic of her people.

But something was bound to go wrong.

The orange ball began to grow and expand, as it was meant to, but instead of bringing forth an enormous amount of dark energy, Aura released a huge beam of light into the throne room. Panic rang through the crowds of Twili, as the light was fatal to them. Aura realized that something had gone wrong, but it was much too late to shut off her power, and she was much too inexperienced to stop herself. It was too late to save her people.

The white light engulfed the entire throne room, and when it died out, there were Twili bodies strewn across the floor. At first, Aura had thought she had killed them. Much to her relief, she discovered that she had only injured them, but this would soon become the least of her troubles.

The Twili, upon realizing what Aura had done, now understood that the Twilight Princess was not a full-blooded Twili. She was unfit to rule them. She was only a half-breed. Angry cries from the people were shouted at her, and many times they called for banishment and exile. Aura heard this, and her heart skipped a beat in fright. This could not be happening. It simply could not be happening.

Her mother's cousin, Itzal, had been watching her the whole time. He saw what she could do, and now knew that she was not the failure he had suspected she would become. He knew all along that she was not a full blooded Twili, but he never would have guessed that such power dwelt within her.

When Aura dashed from the throne room, throwing her robes from her body to the floor, trying as hard as she could to escape the hurtful bellowing of her fellow people, Itzal followed her closely with his eyes. A dastardly smirk spread across his face as he soaked in her pain.

Though the people wanted her exiled, he had another plan in mind; a plan that would seal the fate of the Twilight Realm. Now the sun would set on this beautiful ethereal kingdom. By the unknowing will of the people and of a very member of the Royal family, the twilight would lose its gleam, and darkness would set in forever.

_A/N: I really apologize if the title of this chapter seems like a rip-off to that one Harry Potter book. It really wasn't meant to be. I'm not even into Harry Potter, so I didn't even know until recently…and by then, the title of the chapter had already stuck, and I refuse to change it._


	2. Kidnapped and Exiled

**Chapter Two: Kidnapped and Exiled**

_A/N: The name "Theyd" is not pronounced like the conjunction "They'd" it is pronounced "Th-hey-ed" so it has a softer sound to the "Th" sound._

It was a mild, sunny morning at Hyrule castle, and everyone was busy, including Queen Zelda and her two twin children. The queen was hard at work in teaching her eldest child, her now sixteen year old daughter (also named Zelda), the ways to govern and rule over the kingdom. After all, it was she who would reign over all of Hyrule when her mother was no longer able to, for she was the first in line.

The young Princess Zelda was just as beautiful, if not more so, than her mother had been before her. Her long silken sheet of golden hair reached just past her waist, and was tied into an elaborate braid to keep it out of her way. Her deep, blue eyes reflected everything that her soft gaze danced upon. Her features were softer than those of her mother's, and though she was not as graceful and elegant as the queen had once been, she was as sweet, innocent, and benevolent as any princess should be.

Queen Zelda's son, Prince Theyd, was also busy, though he was not present in the Castle grounds. Rather, he was out hunting in Northern Hyrule Field of the Lanayru Province, right around the Entrance to Zora's Domain.

Prince Theyd was a dashing young man, of the same age as his sister, though a few minutes younger. He really did not mind that he would not be the one to rule the kingdom after his parents could do so no longer, because he felt that his place was out roaming the wilderness as the old knights used to do, before they had become as cowards. He had inherited many features from his mother, such as his golden blonde hair, his sky-blue eyes, and his fair complexion. Yet, even with all of these inheritances, along with being the twin brother to a female, there was nothing effeminate about him at all. He had broad shoulders, well defined yet not large muscles, a stern chin, a strong chest, and was incredibly well-toned from all the horse-back riding he had done in the past sixteen years of his life (except for the years where he had not yet learned to ride horses, of course). Theyd was also very skilled in archery, including horseback archery. He was adequately proficient in wielding short swords, and exceeded at the use of throwing daggers. On top of all of this, he was a very handsome young man.

A little while into his peaceful morning of riding, he spotted a caravan of Zoras approaching. This caravan must have been on its way to Zora's Domain. But these Zoras did not look like the Zoras from Hyrule. The prince pondered this shortly. Then he realized that they must have been Zoras from a tribe in one of Hyrule's neighboring countries such as Holodrum, or perhaps Labrynna. Yes, that was it, they were visiting the Hylian Zoras.

He decided to follow them a little to see them up close. He had always been fascinated by the other humanoid races of Hyrule, especially the Zoras...and the people of twilight that his mother often spoke of.

No sooner had he gotten behind the caravan that it hit an invisible wall of some sort and had been thrust mercilessly into the ground. A few Zoras, including a young female who must have been Royalty or at least nobility because of the way she was so richly adorned with shells and other trinkets of the sea. The prince reared his horse up and ran over to go try to help them. He knew that something was wrong, and it wasn't just that they had tumbled over something. They had been pushed. And that something was hostile.

He leapt down off of his horse and knelt down to help the young female. When he lifted her up, however, she was unconscious. He didn't blame her, she had just been thrown viciously from her ride and must have hit her head somewhere along in the process. He lifted himself off the ground, with the Zora woman in his arms. He was about to look around the area to check if any of the other Zora were still conscious, when a great, heavy, mangled hand placed itself on his shoulder.

His entire body tensed up, and his hair began to stand on end. _What the hell?_

He turned around to see a great wall of black, with strange orange markings in it. Everywhere it touched the sky; it caused its beautiful hue of blue to turn into a musky pale orange that seemed darker than it should have been. From the center of the wall, a black, twisted arm was reaching out and grasping him tightly by the shoulder.

Without warning, he was lifted off of his feet and yanked through the wall with such force that he lost all consciousness. Worse still, he still had the Zora woman in his arms...he had dragged her right along with him.

zzz

When Aura had dashed off from the palace, she knew that she was being followed. She heard her mother, Midna, calling after her, desperately calling out for her to come back. A mob of other Twili were screaming all sorts of foul nonsense at the poor girl, and every now and then a clearly audible "Exile!" was shouted out. She knew that if only she could make it into the Black Forest, no one would follow her there. No one ever went into the Black Forest unless they were looking forward to getting lost for all eternity. If they wanted her exiled, that was where she could go. At least there, she could die in peace, away from those who wished ill on her.

At long last, she saw the foreboding arm-like black branches stretching out in the distance, as if the sharp finger-like projections of sticks and twigs that adorned these branches were clawing at the sky. The thick, twisted trunks of the obsidian trees towered from the ground, warning all who dared to enter. Aura smiled a little as she heard the crowd slow its pace, knowing at last that they had successfully driven her to the place of exile.

After all, Aura was not the first to be driven into the Black Forest. There was another Twili who had been driven here long ago, a witch who had the gift of foresight and divine interpretation by the name of Theia who had dared to conspire with the people of the light that claimed power over the shadows. Along with the witch, the little remains of those people were driven there along with her. This place had always been, and would forever be, the resting place of those who threatened the race of the Twili with the Light.

zzz

Midna took one last sorrowful look at her beloved daughter before she disappeared into the Black Forest. She knew that she would probably never see Aura's beautiful face again. Midna knew that already, she was having a difficult time dealing with it. Her heart felt like it was being burned and torn at the same time. It was worse than when she had lost Link. This was her own daughter, the very child she had loved and raised with all of her heart, the very child that had been born from Link and herself. What would she tell Link? That their precious daughter had been practically murdered by her own people? What would he say to that? He would probably blame himself for it, because he was the one who fathered her and who she gotten the blood of the light dwellers from. He would never be able to live with himself after that.

The other Twili then turned to Midna. "Well?" they said impatiently.

"Let's...go back to the castle, everyone. There will be no Twilight Princess," she said, trying as hard as she could to hold back the tears that were stinging to be set free from her eyes.

Itzal, her cousin, then emerged from the mob of Twili. "Dear, dear Midna. I feel for your loss, but you should not be so melancholy for her. She was obviously not your real daughter, for what Twili has power over light? Come, let us go home and get things back in celebrate the defeat of an enemy. There's not much use having all of the preparations go to waste, am I right?"

The other Twili cheered.

This was the last straw. Midna was now, along with being heartbroken, far passed the limits of all furiosity, and she would not tolerate such suggestions, especially from a trusted member of her own family. "Listen here, all of you!" she roared. "Aura was my true daughter, and there's nothing you can say or do to make that untruthful! She was born of me, and yes, she bears the power of the light within her, but she was still my daughter! At least allow me to mourn for her loss, not celebrate like some barbaric fiends bent on murdering their own children!" Her tears were now freely streaming down her face and hitting the ground like acid.

The crowd was silenced, for they had never seen their queen like this before. But Itzal just grew a nasty, malicious grin across his face. "Oh? You mean you weren't just disappearing from the kingdom for those elongated periods of time to visit with your husband in another part of the Twilight Realm?"

Midna's heart skipped a beat. He was going to spill her secret! She had put her trust in Itzal to never tell anyone that she was really going to the realm of the light dwellers all those times she was gone! "Itzal..." she said hesitantly.

"You were fraternizing with the enemy! Your daughter carries the blood of one of those vile fiends who put us here in the first place!"

"No, that's not..."

"Aura was not the only traitorous one! Our very own Queen Midna is a traitor as well! Like mother like daughter, everyone! I guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree!"

"Stop it!"

The other Twili started to chant "traitor" right along with Itzal. Itzal slowly approached his trembling cousin, cynically laughing at her.

Midna realized that there was no way she could stay here. She would have to leave. She thanked the gods that she had not yet used the power of her Silver Tear to travel to Hyrule. She quickly touched her fingers to the pendant as it began to sparkle and shine with twilight energy. Within moments, Midna was gone, nowhere to be found.

Only Itzal knew where she had gone…back to Hyrule.

The Twili were rather startled, but Itzal had expected this. This was absolutely perfect for his plans. He hadn't expected them to go so well. Now that the queen and her daughter were out of the way, he was free to shape this realm into whatever the hell he felt like. This was going to be fun. He turned to the Twili and shouted, "The traitors have been exposed and dealt with! Now, who is it who showed the traitor-queen for what she really was?"

"Itzal!"

"Who was it who watched over this kingdom while the traitor-queen was off in enemy lands?"

"Itzal!"

"Who is the one who shares the blood of the true ruler, the true King of the Twilight?"

"Itzal!"

"Who is it who will be your new king?"

"Itzal!"

And with that, the people began to happily make their way back to the palace, roaring and cheering the whole way, with their new king Itzal in the lead. Only the goddesses themselves knew what horrors were about to consume both realms of the world they had created. They wept for their people. And they wept for those who let it all happen.


	3. The Meeting

**Chapter Three: The Meeting**

Theyd opened his eyes groggily, only to see a haze of darkness. He fully sat up, and remembered everything that had happened. He blinked a few times, and his head was cleared. He could now see the shrouded dull-orange colored sky, littered with floating, rotating, see-through squares of black. Large, twisted, obsidian tree trunks erupted jaggedly through the grey earth, their scraggly branches clawing out at the surreal atmosphere.

Theyd looked beside him and saw that the young Zora woman was still passed out beside him. He wondered what she would say when she awoke here. He wondered how she would react with him there. His answers would come all too soon.

She opened her eyes and moaned in pain, apparently feeling the full brunt of the fall now. She wrapped her cold, damp hands around the base of her neck in an attempt to rub the pain away. Theyd watched her carefully as she struggled to bring herself to her knees, her body shaking as she did so. As soon as she got to her knees, she lifted her head, and was looking straight into Theyd's eyes. He was caught completely off guard, and he fell backwards.

The Zora woman just laughed at him and said in a strangely watery voice, "You're such a silly little creature!"

Theyd was insulted. Didn't this woman know a human, a pure blooded Hylian boy no less, when she saw one? He quickly jumped to his feet and began yelling all sorts of things at her…only to realize that he _wasn't_ a human.

He stretched his arms out in front of him, only to see that they had become large wings. Beautiful brown feathers covered the entire span of his wings, marking that he had become a bird. He brought his wings to his face and discovered that he had a strong, hard, hooked beak.

Was he…an eagle? But why? And what was this strange place he was in? He ruffled his beautiful feathers in bitter frustration.

His thoughts were interrupted when a frightened, worried look began to spread across the Zora woman's face. She wasn't looking straight at him anymore, but rather past him. He quickly turned around to see what she was afraid of.

It was a strange, grey-skinned girl who was running at break-neck speed through the trees, not paying attention to where she was going. Everywhere she stepped a flash of light would appear beneath her feet. It was beautiful and terrifying all at once.

Before the running girl could reach us, the Zora woman cried out, "Stop! You're going to trample someone!"

The girl immediately came to a halt and looked up at them, with a confused expression on her face.

Theyd took this chance to get a closer look at her, now that she was no longer in motion. She had the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen, far more beautiful than his own, his sister's, or even his mother's eyes. They were a deeper blue, like the deep waters of Lake Hylia, instead of the light blue of the skies like his family had. And her hair…if it had been straightened out rather than slightly feathered at the tips, it would have hung at just past her shoulders. And even more amazing was the color. He had never seen anything like it. It was almost like the color of an Ordon pumpkin, with a sheen of gold like that of his own hair.

Was this…a Twili? Was she of the creatures of Twilight that resided in the world parallel to Hyrule? She was so…beautiful…but something didn't seem entirely right. He remembered his mother telling him once that the Twili had red eyes. Why were hers blue? Not that he was complaining or anything, because she was absolutely gorgeous.

The girl was obviously young Princess Aura, unbeknownst to Theyd and Rutaysu.

Aura cocked her head at the two creatures she was looking at. From the appearance, it was a Zora woman of noble birth, and an eagle…but didn't eagles only exist in the realm of light? Her expression immediately lit up. Creatures from the other world were here! In this very forest! Maybe they could tell her more about that world, and maybe…

But something wasn't quite right. The bird did not seem to be a bird to Aura. It felt almost as if it was a human body crammed into the shell of an eagle, and held inside by some dark magic. She slowly moved towards the Zora and the Eagle, with her hands outstretched before her.

"Please…" she said quietly. "I will not hurt you. I only wish to return you to your true form."

"What?!" asked Rutaysu, confused.

"Not you," replied Aura softly. "The bird…rather…" She kneeled down and picked up the eagle that had once been the prince of Hyrule.

Aura whispered a few Twili words and then placed her hand on Theyd's avian forehead. His body began to glow with a strange light that emanated from his forehead where she had been touching him. She slowly pulled her hand back, and extracted a strange-looking black shard from his forehead. It was quite large, and etched with strange, orange markings.

Surely this was not the magic of her own people…but if not, then who's magic was it? Surely it was not the magic of the light dwellers?

Before she could finish pondering what the shard was, the eagle transformed into a handsome blonde boy who must have been around her age. He was obviously one of the light dwellers. She couldn't help but blush as she noticed how absolutely good-looking this boy was. If his attire had been a little more regal rather than his simple black riding tunic and loose black leather pants, she would have sworn that he was even a prince.

The Zora woman was amazed. Was this who she thought it was? Was this the prince of Hyrule, son of Queen Zelda? He certainly looked like him, but much like with Aura, she did a double-take because of his simple attire. She remained silent as she watched the interaction between the boy who was once an eagle and the strange grey-skinned girl.

The boy exhaled with a sigh of relief and said, "You have my thanks, stranger. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Theyd of Hyrule. I…"

But he was cut off by Aura. "You mean the realm of light? I knew it! No other in my realm has skin of your peach complexion and of golden hair! How long have you been trapped in this forest? When did you arrive? Are you familiar with Ordon Village?" she quickly blurted in a frenzy of questions.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it! Let's just have one question at a time, shall we? But first…" he stopped mid-sentence and turned around to face the Zora woman. "Why don't you join us?" He beckoned for her to come closer to them. She nodded and scurried closer towards where Aura and Theyd were sitting. He smiled politely at her.

"Now," continued Theyd. "You ask us one question, and we'll answer to the best of our ability. Then we get to ask you a question, and I pray you do the same?"

"Okay…" Aura nodded. "How did you get here?"

"I'm not exactly sure myself, but I was grabbed by a strange shadowy arm reaching out from a great black wall in my world. When I came to, I was just here… Alright, that was one," said Theyd. "Now it's my turn. What is your name, and are you really a Twili?" he directed at Aura.

"You cheater!" said Aura. "That's two! But I'll answer them anyways. My name is Aura. At the moment, I really don't know what I am…"

"How can you not know what you are?" asked Theyd.

"Hey, come on, they're your own rules and you're not even following them! I'll answer you after I get my next question."

"Alright, alright, you don't have to get so defensive!" joked Theyd as he raised his hands behind his head to rest his neck. He looked like such a nerd when he did that, but Aura though it was kind of cute. She laughed right alongside him.

"Alright," began Aura. "Ordon Village, are you familiar with the place?"

"Yes," replied Theyd, nodding his head. "I used to train in sword play there under a man named Rusl. I used to spar with his son on occasion."

"Rusl and Colin, I remember them! They took care of me sometimes…but that's not important now…" Aura nodded, smiling to herself as she remembered how she used to visit Rusl, his wife Uli, and his two children, Colin and Corinne. She wondered if she would ever see them again, and wondered if, under the circumstances, they would even want to see her again. She then turned to the Zora woman. "What's your name, Miss Zora?" asked Aura.

"Me?" asked the Zora woman. "My name is Rutaysu. I am crown princess of the Zora Tribe of one of Hyrule's neighboring countries, Labrynna. Now for my question: how on earth did I end up here? One moment I was traveling to Zora's Domain of Hyrule, and the next I woke up here." She rubbed the back of her head again, evidently still feeling the after-shock of her tumble.

"Ah, I figured that you were a princess when I found you passed out in Hyrule field."

"What?" cried Rutaysu. "What can you mean?"

"Those strange monsters…they attacked your caravan. If I hadn't saved you, you would have been killed!" exclaimed Theyd, moving his arms all about as if to emphasize his statement.

"Yes, I remember our caravan overturning and I took quite a blow to the head, I presume…but…how in Hyrule did you come upon our caravan?!"

"Oh, well…you see…I was riding during my daily morning training, and I just happened to find the caravan. And I also happened to see what knocked it over. To tell you the truth, with your soft skull, it's amazing that you aren't dead right now. You should be happy that I saved you!" replied Theyd.

"You call this saving? We're stranded in a strange forest in a strange world, with no way back to where we came from!" she replied. "And I really need to find some source of water!" She gasped a little and rubbed her forehead. "This is kidnapping! I demand to be brought back immediately! My wedding night is tonight! What are my people supposed to do without me there? What will become of the festivities? What will become of my groom-to be?"

"Whoa, hold on, Princess Rutaysu," said Aura softly. "There's no way out of this forest, at least not that I know of anyways. Come on, we're wasting time here; let's go find something to eat and somewhere to camp, and some water. We don't want to become Twilit fodder, now do we?"

Just then, Aura sensed something coming. Could it be…a Twilit? She brushed away the thought, but would not let go of her instinct to run. Her tone suddenly changed from playful and happy to solemn and afraid. "Come on, we need to go right now." And with that, she got up, beckoned for the two light dwellers to follow her, and quickly walked off through the ebony forest.

"Hey!" called Theyd after her. "You didn't answer my question!"

"It will have to wait!" Aura called back at him. "Now we've got more important things to do!" And with that, she quickened her pace, being careful not to leave the two behind, but stressing to keep just enough ahead of them that they had to walk at a hastened pace. She didn't want to lose them now, did she?

What could she say? She really, really didn't enjoy answering questions about herself. Not to mention that feeling of something watching them a little earlier. And hey, she had met some companions in the place she had been condemned to. Maybe exile wouldn't be so bad after all…

_A/N: Alright, I know that it's been like forever since I've updated this (or any of my other stories for that matter) and this is a rather short, pointless chapter other than that three of the main characters finally meet (which I like even less than my first chapter) but I promise that it will get better! Just bear with me while I get through the boring stuff, please?_


	4. What Lurks Behind Them

**Chapter Four: What Lurks Behind Them**

Meanwhile, back in Ordon Village, Link was busy herding the goats with Fado as usual. He rode around on Epona, corralling the loveable blue beasts back to their pen. Their hard black hooves trotted the ground in a hustle to get back to their pens as Link and Epona chased them down. The soft blue fur and the long white mane of the animals whipped around in the cool morning breeze as they ran.

Link was trying to focus his mind on the task at hand, but something was nagging him in the back of his head. He could feel something tugging on the strings of his heart. On the outside, he appeared quite alright, but deep within the corners of his mind he could feel that something wasn't right. He just couldn't put his finger on it…

When the goats had all been herded, Fado thanked him, and Link proceeded to ride back to his house. Trot, trot, trot…all he could hear was the clipity-clop of Epona's hooves on the dirt pathway. He patted her neck lovingly as thanks for a hard morning's work, and she neighed softly in response. It seemed to Link as though his beautiful mare could also sense the uneasiness in the air. He looked up and around him and saw that the village was entirely empty and silent save for Epona's steps upon the cold, hard ground. It was far too early for anyone to be awake, so he should have expected that…but something was still unnerving him.

When he arrived at his house, he dismounted from Epona. He felt as if someone was watching him as his feet touched the ground, and startled, he whipped his head around to see what was behind him. Nothing. He sighed and proceeded to climb up to his room. Right as he put his hand on the first rung of the ladder, he heard a noise that was all too familiar…Midna had returned.

He turned around in an instant, releasing his grip from the ladder. He smiled at seeing his dearly beloved, but his cheerful grin swiftly left his face when he saw her melancholy expression…and when he saw that their daughter was not with her.

Midna looked up at him with tearful eyes. "Link…Aura…she's…" she choked out between her sobs. She was about to collapse from the strain of her own sorrow, and Link rushed to her side. Midna's legs gave out and she swooned, but Link caught her in his arms.

"What's happened to our daughter?" pleaded Link.

"She's…!" Midna struggled. She couldn't bear to tell him what had happened. Would he be angry with her for not being able to protect Aura like a good mother should have? Would he be angry at himself for not being able to be there for her? Would he blame himself for being a lousy father? Would he do something rash?

"Midna, please, tell me what's happened to her," he asked of her once more while he lowered the two of them to the ground.

Midna simply shook her head as the tears flowed freely from her eyes. She tried to wipe them away from her face in vain. The salty droplets simply wouldn't stop their continuous streamlines down her beautiful cheeks. Her royal make-up was beginning to smudge from all of her crying and wiping with her sleeve. She was an absolute mess.

"Would you rather we talk about this inside?" he asked softly.

Midna nodded her head.

"Well, I don't think I'll be able to carry you up the ladder…will you be able to stand?"

Midna nodded her head again. She hugged Link for a single moment, and then she disappeared into the shadows. He followed the little black shadow with his eyes as it moved from beside him to underneath each individual rung of the ladder and finally out of his sight. Within moments, she was standing in the doorway of his house, and motioning for him to come quickly. He curried up the ladder as fast as he could. After all these years, her mysterious powers never ceased to amaze him.

But this was not the time for wonder and awe. He needed to know what had happened to Aura. He needed to know what had become of his beloved daughter.

zzz

Back in the Black Forest, Prince Theyd and Princess Rutaysu were struggling to keep up with young Aura. She moved so fluidly with such ease through the gaggles of ebony pillars that posed as trees that it was almost unreal. Her long yellow-orange hair flowed behind her as she swept past the branches and trunks of the trees. She appeared as little more than a blur of gray and black topped with a hint of orange to the tired and dizzy Zora princess.

"Wait up!" called Rutaysu after her. She was quickly tiring from dehydration. She was a Zora, after all, and she had gone without water for more than a few hours now. She was already pushing her body's limits. She needed water…even a drop would have sustained her tired frame for a while longer.

Aura simply called back, "Please keep up with me!" She didn't say this because she was insensitive, but ever since they had started walking, she could sense that they were being followed. She didn't dare slow her pace to find out exactly what was doing the following. She had only hoped that it wasn't a Twilit beast…

"Hey!" cried out Theyd. "Aura, just wait a moment, we're falling too far behind you!" He beckoned to Rutaysu to quicken her footing, as he was only staying back so the young Zora woman could use him as a rest if she happened to give out. He could tell that she probably wouldn't last much longer without water.

Just as these thoughts were running through his mind, Rutaysu tripped and fell onto his back. She managed to squeeze out, "I can't…move my legs anymore…do you…mind…carrying me?" The fins that adorned her elbows and thighs flailed out, as if in a last desperate attempt to pick up any stray water vapor that was floating in the air.

Theyd nodded, picked her up off of the ground and propped her up on his back piggy-back style.

"Thank you…" panted Rutaysu as she closed her weary eyes, eager to get some rest and conserve what little energy she had left.

For a moment, Theyd almost pitied her. She seemed so helpless…could she really be one of the strong, graceful Zoras people if this was all she was made of? Without water, the Zoras were little more than bipedal, intelligent fish-out-of-water.

Aura stopped for a moment and let her two companions catch up with her when she noticed that she had lost sight of them, but could still hear their footsteps…or rather, one set of footsteps at least. The single set of footsteps she could hear crunching through the black twigs that had fallen astray to the ground had grown heavier and more labored somehow. What had happened to the other set of soft steps on the ground?

When she saw Theyd rushing through the path towards her with Rutaysu on his back, Aura gasped and ran towards them. "What's happened?" she asked.

"She over exerted herself when she was dehydrated!" he scolded her. "She's a fish without her water, what did you expect would happen when we took off like that? If we had just slowed down a little bit, this wouldn't have happened!"

"I'm sorry," Aura said as she hung her head. "But…I didn't want whoever, or whatever, was following us to catch up with us. That's why we couldn't slow down. I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Following us?!" cried Theyd. "Don't you think you could have mentioned this to us before you ran of with us chasing after you?"

"I'm sorry, I tend to assume that people just know what I'm thinking without me telling anyone…it's just a thing with me…my people can read me easily."

"Well, we aren't your people now, are we? Now we've got an unconscious Zora princess on our hands and we're being chased by some nameless creature!"

"Listen, I already said I'm sorry, isn't that enough for you?"

"Sorry won't solve our problems! If she dies, we'll probably be blamed for it! Hell, even if she doesn't, if I ever get back I'm sure to be charged for kidnapping royalty! And if whatever's following us doesn't kill us first, my family will! My mother is going to kill me!"

"Is all you ever think about yourself? You're not even genuinely concerned for the poor girl! You're just worried about saving your own sorry hide!"

Just then a loud crunch of the branches could be heard. Both Theyd and Aura jumped, their senses highly accentuated with fear and the tingling pulse of the adrenaline running through their veins.

"It's coming!" cried Aura hastily. "Whatever it is, it's right behind us!"

"Shut up and get us out of hear!" replied Theyd, in an equally hasty manner.

Just as they had begun to run, they all heard something behind them snap again. It was much closer than the last crack had been. They turned around and their eyes widened in shock as they saw the enormous, foul beast that had been tracking them all this time…

zzz

Ilia was at her house, cleaning up after the lunch that she and her father had both shared. Now that her father was so old, he could no longer run as the mayor of Ordon without some help from his daughter. But they were both living well enough.

Ordon had been quite prosperous since Link had returned sixteen years ago and married that Twilight Princess. Though Ilia had been suffering greatly from heartbreak at the time, she was content enough to know that her dearly beloved would at least find his own happiness. At the time, it showed that her love for him really was as true as any love could be.

As Ilia cleaned, she reminisced the past. She had never tried to be anything more than friends with Link, and she had never tried to look for love in another place. And now here she was, taking care of and helping out her father. She was thirty-three years old and still had no dreams or hopes of ever leaving the village again.

At least, not after her last adventure, anyways. She had had more than enough adventure in her lifetime than she wanted.

She heard footsteps coming up from behind her, and thinking it was her father, resumed her cleaning. "Hello, father," she began.

There was no response.

"Daddy, what's wrong?"

Still there was no response.

"Dad?" she said, raising her voice a little. She didn't turn away from her work until she felt hot, sticky breath on her neck and back. "A little personal space, please!" she cried as she turned around. But what she saw was not her father. It was a man-sized bipedal lizard wearing armor and wielding a short sword.

The Lizalfos screeched its battle cry as it raised its arm into the air. Hot, sticky spittle flew from its gaping jaws, and brought its arm holding the weapon down hard, with Ilia screaming her lungs out as the blade sliced through the air. It missed her by less than an inch, the sharpened steel cleaving into the wooden table and getting partially stuck in its surface.

Ilia dropped the plates and ran out of the house, right in the direction of Link's house. If there was anyone who could get rid of that thing, Link would be that person. And she needed him now more than ever. Hopefully it hadn't gotten to her father just yet.

"Oh daddy, please be alright…" she whispered to herself as she ran off to the household of her hero.

_A/N: Long time no update! Sorry everyone! Anyways, it's finals time again this year, so I won't have any time to update ANY of my stories for the next two weeks or so. I might update over Christmas break, but don't count on it. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I definitely think it's better than my previous chapter, though still nowhere near to my best work. Happy Holidays to all of you who are reading this!_


	5. The Beasts are Upon Them

Chapter 5: The Beasts are Upon Them

Theyd and Aura looked up in horror at not one, but three large, black beasts that had come up behind them. They had enormous, black, disc-like coverings where their heads should have been, and there were several long, frayed strands that hung back, draped above their curved backs from their necks. Their long, thin arms were warped and lanky, and were covered along their lengths with fine black markings that were even darker than the rest of their body pigment. Their legs were much shorter than their arms, yet were still intimidating and voluminous.

"What the hell is that thing?! Those things?! Gah, whatever!" cried Theyd as he almost dropped the Zora princess off of his back. He noticed he was loosing his grip and he hoisted her up again with one small toss up his back, securing his arms more tightly around her as he did so.

"What the hell is what?" mumbled Rutaysu. The yelling and jerking movements had woken her up, and she was all groggy. She couldn't really see straight for that matter either, and had no idea what was going on. It probably didn't help matters much that she was in desperate need of water and her outstretched fins were making themselves an obvious target for whatever happened to be out there with harmful intent…including the creatures that had moved up around the three of them.

"Those are Twilit!" screamed Aura. She grabbed hold of Theyd's arm and tried to run off, but his feet stayed planted firmly in the ground and she stumbled as the tried to move away.

"Ugh…can you keep your voices down please? You're right next to each other…" Rutaysu tried to intervene.

"You mean like you?" he asked, shrugging Aura's hand away from his arm. If these creepy _things_ were just like Aura, they were sure to be friendly, right? But something about the creatures told him that he was sadly mistaken...

"No, I said a Twilit! There's a little 't' there at the end of the word! I'm a Twili…at least…at least I think I am! But…" Aura began slowly backing up from the beasts.

"You 'think' you are? What kind of an argument is that?!" He took two small steps backwards in the direction that Aura was inching in so as not to alert the Twilit beasts any more than they already had been. Hopefully their tactics were working, as the creatures remained motionless except for the black fray hanging from their heads, or whatever was remaining that was where their heads should be.

In the brief silence that arose after Theyd's words, the Twilit beasts roared and began charging for Aura, Theyd and Rutaysu.

"But that's not the point, just run!"

"I won't argue with you one that part," agreed Theyd as he felt the adrenaline begin to pulse through his body. He was ready to run. Not only that, but if it came down to it, he sure as Hell was ready to fight.

With that, Theyd tightened his hold on Rutaysu and took off in the direction Aura had bolted. They ducked under branches and scurried around brambles. Yet no matter how fast they ran, no matter how quickly they could move their bodies out of the way, the Twilit Beasts kept right on them. There was no hope for escape.

Theyd stopped by a tree and quickly slid himself and Rutaysu behind it. He slowly lowered her off of his back and set her gently by the tree. The Twilit Beasts didn't seem to notice him, and so he stayed crouched down in the black brambles that jutted out from its roots. He could see that Aura hadn't ducked away, and she was still being hopelessly pursued by the creatures. He clenched his teeth and looked away. He knew that he couldn't help her…he couldn't draw attention to himself or else the creatures would come for him and Rutaysu. He had no way to protect the both of them from three huge, hostile creatures. He felt pain well up inside of him as he realized that his actions would most likely lead to Aura's death. But what could he possibly do to save her? Besides getting Rutaysu and himself killed in the process?

Aura looked back to see that the three beasts were still on her heels, but Theyd and Rutaysu were nowhere to be found. While she wasn't looking at where she was going, she tripped and fell on her back, spraining her ankle from getting it caught under a tree root while running. As she toppled over, she could see the Twilit get closer to her and begin to surround her.

"Theyd!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, panic rising in her voice. "Theyd, where are you?!"

Theyd knew that she was calling for his help, and he struggled within himself to make a quick decision. It was either Aura or him and Rutaysu. Could he really just let her die? Would he be willing to sacrifice himself and another person in order to save Aura? No, this was too much to ask of him, he couldn't make this kind of decision, he wasn't ready.

"Theyd, where are you, help!"

Theyd began to rock back and forth. He was out of time to make a decision. Now or never. Him or Aura. Life or death…

Aura tried to get up, but to no avail. Her ankle was in extreme pain, and her foot was stuck underneath the protruding root. Tears of pain and fear came rushing to her eyes. "Theyd!" she screeched once more.

Theyd heard her continued frightened calls for help and immediately came to a decision. "Oh, Gods, I pray this works and I don't come to regret this…" He slowly maneuvered out from the bushes. Rutaysu had fallen back into unconsciousness in the meantime. He peeked around the tree and saw that the three beasts were about to attack Aura. His heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly did something incredibly stupid and foolhardy, something he never would have dreamed of doing if he had been thinking clearly.

"Hey!" he cried out, trying to get the attention of the beasts. They looked over in his direction, but they still stayed clustered around Aura.

"Over here, you dumb beasts!" he shouted at them. When that failed to bring them away from Aura, he tossed a large clump of black soil at them. They were motionless for a while, and Theyd reached down to grab another handful of the dark dirt in order to ready another assault on them. But before his hands were full of the stuff, the three creatures lunged themselves towards him, completely ignoring the trembling princess who lay on the ground behind them.

In a flash, he took off running into the distance. He had to lure those things away from the unconscious Rutaysu and the helpless Aura. How had he ever wound up in this kind of a situation anyways? How had he gotten stuck playing deadly games of hide-and-seek and hit-and-run to protect not one, but two damsels in distress?

Before he knew it, the creatures were upon him and had him pinned to the ground. In all the rush of adrenaline, he had totally overlooked the past three minutes of his life. He couldn't recall how they had gotten him so fast and how he had managed to get his riding gear torn to shreds so quickly. His coming-of-age present from his mother the Queen…oh, how had it come to this?


	6. The Shadow of the Light Dwellers

Chapter Six:

**Chapter Six: The Shadow of the Light Dwellers**

"What? Exiled? To where?" asked Link frantically.

"To the Black Forest…a place where no Twili dare venture, for there is no escape known to my people. There is a curse on that forest that imprisons the Twili within its barren reach. All who enter are fated to death."

"Black Forest?" exclaimed Link. "I don't remember any forests when I went to the Twilight Realm with you all those years ago. You can't possibly tell me that an enormous forest just happened to spring up out of nowhere in a mere seventeen years. That's just not possible."

"Oh please, Link, don't be daft. It's been there for centuries. But it's nowhere near the palace, which is the only area you've been. You forget, the Twilight Realm is like a parallel to this one. The Black Forest is far to the south of the palace, in the same general area as the Faron Woods would be in relations to Hyrule Castle."

"What's the plan, then? What can we do?" Link sighed sadly.

"I figured…since you are not one of our people, the curse may not hold its sway over you. I would bring you there, and we could look for her. Bring her back to the realm of light where she will be safe."

"But you have already used the power of the tear. Even if we find her, how will we return?"

"Aura is of age now. She will soon be in possession of her very own tear. She must go through some very difficult tests to obtain it, but I'm sure the Black Forest will provide ample testing for her young soul. Her new silver tear would be even more powerful that my own tear, and have an even stronger tie to this world, for she has the blood of a light dweller flowing through her veins…and that light dweller is you, the Hero of Light."

It was then that Ilia reached the foot of Link's tree house and started screaming out his name. She knew he was home, for she had seen him ride back from the ranch, and Epona was resting in the shadow of a tree. "Link!" she cried as loudly as she could.

Link and Midna poked their heads out of the window to see Ilia with a terrified expression on her face.

"What is it?" Link called back down to her.

"Monsters! In my father's house!" she shouted.

Link turned to face Midna. "Going back for her will have to wait a little longer, my love. If I leave now, there's no telling what could happen to the village."

"I understand," said Midna. "I will go with you. This must be over with quickly."

Link rushed down the ladder of his home as Midna shadowed down below and materialized by Ilia.

"Midna!" Ilia exclaimed. "If the circumstances were not as they were, I'd give you a warmer welcome, but that will have to wait!" With that, the three ran towards the Mayor's house.

When they arrived, they found Bo trying hopelessly to fend off three armored Lizalfos with his bare hands. He was growing old, after all, and with his age his strength was waning, but not enough to make him a helpless old man. He could still fight. He saw his daughter and her friends burst through the door, Link with his sword in hand, and Bo smiled. "There y' are, ma' boy! Come to give an old friend a hand?" he said as he grabbed a Lizalfos by the tail and swung it across the room, panting heavily as he did so.

Link twirled his sword once in his hands and rushed into the fray. He thrust his sword forward and into a Lizalfos, right through its gut. He wrenched his sword down its center, splitting the creature in two before it poofed away in a plume of black smoke. He did a half turn and his blade found the throat of the second Lizalfos. He slid his blade across the foul beast's throat as it shrieked in agony before it perished in the same way as the first Lizalfos. Link then turned and faced the third and final beast, but before his sword found its mark, the creature was engulfed in a thick black mist. He turned his head to see Midna clenching her fist and yanking her arm back as if she were going to throw a punch, and the let go of her fist. The black mist condensed around the Lizalfos, killing it in once swift motion, letting it poof away like the first two.

She had learned a new trick since the last time she had fought alongside him…

Bo stood up and brushed himself off. "Thank y' ma' boy. Don't know what would a' happened to me if Ilia hadn't gone and fetched you. And Midna, this is one heckuva welcoming party you got here. Sorry about all that. Thanks for the help."

"Bo, Ilia," began Link after sheathing his sword. "What's going on? How did these monsters get in here?"

"I don't quite understand it myself," replied Ilia. "I was washing dishes over by the sink when one of those things reared its ugly head right behind me. That's when I ran to get you."

"Well, then. I want you to have Rusl and Colin look after the village while I'm gone. They're the only swordsmen we've got here, and I don't want anything like what happened sixteen years ago to happen again."

"But what about you?" asked Bo. "Where are y' off to?"

"Don't tell me you're off on another adventure again…that can only mean something big and bad is going to happen…" sighed Ilia.

"Or already has," added Bo. He studied the expressions on both Link's and Midna's faces, and he could tell that something just wasn't right. "What's happened?"

"It's…Aura," Midna choked out.

"She's in deep trouble."

"I thought something was missing when I found you two…what's happened to your daughter?" asked Ilia.

Midna began to explain the abridged version of what had happened to herself and Aura back in her world, and of the plan she and Link had to bring her back here where they could all be safe.

zzz

Theyd brought his arms over his face in a last-ditch attempt to guard himself from his imminent death by the hand of these creatures. All he could think of now was that, hopefully, his sacrifice would not have been in vain. Aura would find Rutaysu and some water, and they would survive somehow. The beasts would leave them alone for a while longer, and Theyd could rest in peace. But how he wished that it didn't have to end this way…

Just then, he felt a strong yet brief flash of cold wind, and the heavy, looming breath of the creatures was no longer huffing down on him. He heard the Twilit creatures bellow out a great cry before the sound was followed by a shattering noise, and then there was sound no more. He uncovered his eyes and sat up; looking around him to see what had felled the creatures.

A young man who must have been in his early twenties at the most, and nineteen at the least, stood before him, a katana in one hand and his other outstretched in a helping gesture towards Theyd. He had hair that appeared to be short and spiked backwards from the front, but from the angle Theyd was at, he could see a tiny white pig-tail from the base of his neck. The man had pointed ears, though they were pierced with silver hoop earrings, and peach-colored skin, as did Theyd, but his eyes were somehow different. They were the deep, blood-stained color of rubies. He had white markings that appeared to be half-stars coming down from his lower eye-lids and ending a short way down his face. He wore a long purple cape that came down to his ankles, and he wore unusual silver armor over black clothes.

Aura was kneeling behind the man, with Rutaysu's head resting in her lap. She wore a weary smile on her face as she looked back at Theyd.

"Are you alright?" asked the man as Theyd allowed him to hoist him to his feet. "It's been quite a while since I've seen one of the Light Dwellers."

"Then are you…a Twili?" asked Theyd as he walked over towards the girls.

"Me? A Twili? Goodness, no, lad. I'm from Hyrule, just like you. But unlike you, I am not a Light Dweller. I'm a Sheikah, one of the last remaining of my people. It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Duska."

"A Sheikah? I thought they all disappeared over a hundred years ago, in the age of the Hero of Time. The last one was a Sage, and she was lost to the winds of time when the Hero sealed away Ganon, along with the other sages." Theyd was thoroughly confused. "You couldn't possibly be a Sheikah."

Duska simply laughed. "There was more than a single tribe of Sheikah, you know. Our tribe simply happened to stumble into the Twilight one day, and we've been here for several generations now. As you can tell, we've a long, gruesome history that you'd probably be uninterested in."

Duska turned to Aura and Rutaysu and handed them his canteen of water. "Give it to the Zora. I'm sure she needs it more than I do."

Aura opened Rutaysu's mouth and poured a bit of the cool water down her throat. Within moments, the Zoran Princess opened her eyes, and her fins reverted to their original, folded positions, held closely to her body. "Water…ah, that was nice…I thought I was a goner."

Theyd simply sat down beside Aura and Rutaysu. Besides being lost and confused, he was hungry and tired and he could really care less about anything else at the moment. Before he lay down on the ground to close his eyes, he turned towards the ex-princess of Twilight. "You alright?" he asked. She nodded, and he closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep, exhausted from the previous ordeal.

"Can you girls walk?" asked Duska as soon as Theyd had drifted off. "Or are you as exhausted as he is?"

"I can walk," replied Rutaysu. Aura, on the other hand, was finding it hard to find words come to her. She was so lost in his red eyes and kind face that she was losing track of where she was and what the circumstances were. All she could do was nod, but she knew her knees felt weak and wobbly beneath her.

"Here, I'll help you up," the young Sheikah man said, outstretching a hand to the young Twilight Princess, hoisting her to her feet. When he looked into her eyes and saw that they were blue, he instantly knew who she was. "My lady!" he said. "You are the princess Aura, born of queen Midna, are you not?" His eyes examined her quickly. He could scarcely believe he had just saved the life of the princess. "What could you possibly be doing in these woods?"

Aura could finally find her words, though they were scarce. "Yes, I am. Or rather…I was. I'm an exile now."

"Well, then. Allow me to escort you and your friends to my camp. I'll introduce you to some of my friends. You are welcome to stay with us for as long as you please."

"What about Theyd?" asked Rutaysu.

"Theyd?" asked Duska. "The Prince of Hyrule, son of Queen Zelda and brother to the princess bearing the same name?"

"Theyd's a prince?" asked Aura.

"So," began Rutaysu. "If I'm a princess, you're an ex-princess, and he's a prince, doesn't that make us all royalty? What are the odds of that?"

"Never mind all of that, I will carry the prince on my back. You two follow close behind me until we reach camp. I'm sure you all have learned of the dangers of the Black Forest by now."

With that, the four were off on their way to Duska's camp. Little did they know that from that moment on, their lives would be intertwined, and the fate of both worlds would come to rest on their shoulders.


	7. The Resistance

**Chapter Seven: The Resistance**

Prince Ralis looked down the waterfall of Zoras Domain. He didn't understand…she should have been here by now. It was already nightfall and she and her caravan had yet to show up. It didn't make sense…his guards had told him that the caravan was approaching early this morning. In fact, they had told him that her caravan had already passed the checkpoint, and was to roll through the stone passage way within the hour. Why hadn't they arrived? He was becoming worried.

That was it. He wasn't waiting for her or her escorts any longer. He was going to find them himself if he had to. He walked a few paces back towards his throne before taking a running dash and leaping head-first down the waterfall that led to the deep pool below. He felt himself submerge in the cool waters as he plunged into it. He spun as he was in the water, and he swam to the surface. He quickly maneuvered to the river that led to Lake Hylia, and he let the current take him down to the sacred waters.

When he rose again to the surface, he saw that the sky was not its usual shade for being the Twilight hour. Rather than the soft hue of reds and oranges, it was a harsh, dark orange filled with gray and black clouds. There was no sunset beyond the towering cliff walls of Hylia, either. He remembered this color; this ominous dusk of death…he remembered what had happened seventeen years ago. He remembered how the beasts that came down from holes in the sky had murdered his mother as an example to his people. He was so young then, so innocent and unwise…Why were these skies returning to his home now?

His imagination started to run wild with him. Had the black beasts returned? Had they been the ones who had stopped the caravan? They hadn't…killed his bride-to-be, had they? Murdered her as an example to her own people, as his mother was murdered seventeen years ago? No! He couldn't bear the thought of his childhood friend and his future wife being brutalized in such a manner as his mother was. No, she had to be safe. Gone, but safe…somehow…somewhere…

And he was going to find her and bring her back.

zzz

Duska, Aura, Theyd, and Rutaysu made it back to Duska's camp by nightfall. Aura and Rutaysu were surprised to see so many people, as they had expected a small tribe's camp rather than this place that could have easily been the size of a military base. People were walking everywhere. There were people with white hair and red eyes, blonde hair and red eyes, and even a few Twili.

"What kind of camp is this?" asked Aura.

"Well," began Duska. "It was originally simply a refugee camp. My people would go out into the woods and find lost Twili and bring them here. I'm what you'd call a Ranger. After a time, our camp grew to be so large that it became like a small village. As more and more exiles came to live here, we grew more aware of the situation that was going on."

"Situation? What kind of situation do you speak of?"

"The dark reign of Itzal, cousin to the Queen."

"My uncle? Is that why he exiled me?"

"No, that isn't the case at all! He only made it seem like an exile case. We have…spies in this camp. They keep a close eye on Itzal and his followers. He plans to use you to take over the Twilight Realm. We don't know how or why, but I'm only glad that we found you before he did. There's no telling what he would have done to you."

"But…what if he found me here? What if he found me in this camp? Wouldn't I be putting you all in danger by being you here?" Aura was becoming worried.

Just then, Theyd woke up. "Ungh…where…am I?" he asked sleepily.

Aura looked at Theyd. His hair was all messed up from his sleep, and his face was so…cute when he looked half-asleep. Again, she found herself at a loss for words. What was wrong with her lately? She was a princess! Well, ex-princess, but that didn't change the fact that she had had loads of training in talking to people, both in formal and informal occasions.

Rutaysu was the one to answer him. "We're at Duska's camp. He carried you here since you were asleep."

"Ungh…" was his reply.

"Thank you for risking your life to try and save us," Aura finally managed to say. Her words came out too fast and jumbled together, as if all in a single word. She mentally slapped herself for being so inept at talking to him. "I mean…" she tried to slow down her speech a lot. "It was…very brave of you. You could have died and you still acted to save two complete strangers…"

"How could I leave you for dead?" he asked softly. His voice held something Aura had only heard her old friend Rusl use when he talked to his wife, Uli. There was too much tenderness in his voice, and it caught her off guard. Maybe she was just hearing things? Maybe he only sounded like that because he was tired?

"Aura…such a…beautiful…name…" and with that, he drifted back to sleep. That was it, he had to be out of it. The previous events must have fried his selfish little mind. He wasn't thinking straight. That was the answer. There was nothing wrong with Aura, it was him.

"Did I…miss something?" asked Duska.

"No, not at all," replied Aura, speaking again as if all of her speech was jumbled into a single word.

"Hey, Duska!" cried some nameless voice from a distance.

"Ageroy, how're you doing little brother?" Duska called back to him. "Hey, I'd like to introduce you to some of my friends," Duska said to Rutaysu and Aura. "One is my younger brother and the other two are our best friends."

"Oh," smiled Aura and Rutaysu.

The group walked over to Ageroy, who was standing with two other young men, and Duska introduced them all. "They're newcomers," he added. Ageroy had white hair, like his brother, but it was much longer. He had no bangs, and his hair draped over his shoulders and down his back. He, too, had the half-star shaped markings beneath his eyes, as did his brother. He wore the same attire that Duska wore.

"Nice to meet you all," said one of the men who were standing beside the man who was named Ageroy. He had blood-red hair that matched his eyes. He had a deep scar that ran from just above his eyebrow, across his eye, and ending just before it reached his chin. He was a Twili.

"Aura, Rutaysu, this is Ageroy, Gynsei, and Valefor. Boys, this is Prince Theyd of Hyrule, and Princess Rutaysu of the Labrynna Zora tribe. And the young lady Aura, the daughter of Midna herself." The man he called Gynsei was another Sheikah, though he had blonde hair unlike the white hair of Duska and Ageroy. He wore a simple dark purple tunic with black pants and a black shirt underneath, and brown boots. His hair was short, but his long bangs covered one of his red eyes. Valefor was the Twili with the blood red hair and the deep scar over his eye.

"Welcome to the resistance! Wow, who'd have thought we'd get the Twilight Princess herself to join us?" laughed Ageroy.

"Ex-princess," explained Duska matter-of-factly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Resistance? Duska, what's this about a resistance?" asked Aura.

"Ah, yeah, about that…Our little camp here is pretty much a small army. We oppose Itzal and his followers, if you hadn't gathered that already. But we can talk about that over dinner tonight."

"Yeah, with three royal guests, there's sure to be some kind of party tonight," said Valefor coolly.

"Party!" shouted Gynsei and Ageroy at the same time as they high-fived one another.

"Settle down, you two, you're causing a little scene here," laughed Duska.

Another voice soon interrupted them, this time it was the voice of a female, and a young one at that.

"Duska, Duska!" the little Twili girl shouted as she ran towards the group. "News…terrible news!"

"What's happened, Vitani?" asked Duska, an urgency in his voice that was so strong it nearly scared Aura. He had always seemed so laid-back to her, so calm and collected…

"It's…a wolf! A wolf in the forest!"

"Vitani, what was the color of his eyes? Tell me you saw the color of his eyes!"

"No, sir, I ran too fast to catch the color of his eyes. I am sorry," replied the girl, nearly out of breath. "My sincerest apologies, sir."

"Then we know not if it is the blue-eyed beast of Queen Midna. We will soon find out. Thank you for informing me of this, Vitani, you may go now." With that, the young Twili girl ran off to one of the buildings. Duska then continued to throw out orders. "Ageroy, Gynsei, I want you two to gather up the rest of the Rangers. I want a firm perimeter around this camp. Nothing gets through, do you understand me?" All of the friendliness had left his voice. Now he spoke as duty made him to, with authority over the others.

"Aye, sir!" they said as they ran off to tell the other scouts.

"Valefor, I want you to go around and make sure that everyone is within the perimeter of the camp. No one is to be outside save for the Rangers. Check for every child, every scout, everyone."

"I'm on my way," replied Valefor, his voice as urgent as Duska's.

"Aura, Rutaysu, I need you to take Theyd to that large building right over there. I need you to stay in there until I come and get you, understood?"

Aura nodded as Duska set Theyd down gently in her arms. She was surprised with how light he was.

"Now go."

Aura and Rutaysu took off towards the building, confused as to why a single wolf was such a big deal to require the attention of all of their Rangers, but unwilling to disobey Duska for the sheer feeling that what was happening was one of the turning points in their fate. Whatever the outcome, something major was going to come of this. They could only hope that that something would be something desirable.

_A/N: Alright...I admit, some of my OCs seem a little mary-sue-ish right about now...I swear, though, each of them has a backstory and a personality. This was merely the chapter they were introduced in, so of course they are not going to be explained completely right now. Just hang on for a bit, k?_


	8. Blue Eyed Beast?

**Chapter Eight: Blue Eyed Beast...?**

Aura and Rutaysu waited nervously inside the large building they had been sent to. Quite a few people had already begun hiding in the building before they had gotten there. Even the little Twili girl Vitani was in here, tucked away in a dark corner. Sheikah and Twili alike huddled close waiting in frightened anticipation for the moment of safety they were all praying for.

Aura and Rutaysu sat down on a large cushiony mat, and Aura gently placed Theyd at her side. She looked down at him. _When is he going to wake up…_she thought to herself.

Right as those words ran through her mind, Theyd awoke, quite startled to find his head resting beside Aura's lap, her fingers lightly tracing numerous shapes on her knees. He bolted upright, but right as he was about to say something, Rutaysu clasped a damp, fishy hand over his mouth and motioned for him to be quiet. "We will explain later," she whispered softly. Theyd nodded as Rutaysu removed her had from his face.

Suddenly, the door opened and shut. The three of them jumped from the sudden noise amidst the quiet, and they all looked towards the door.

"It's just me," whispered Valefor. "Stay quiet, everyone is inside the buildings now. We can't let it know we're here." Valefor walked over to Aura, Rutaysu, and Theyd.

Back outside, Duska and the Rangers waited around the perimeter of the camp, waiting for any sign of the wolf. A thick, claustrophobic air was settling all around them, making them fidgety and forcing a sense of dread upon them. They all prayed that this was Queen Midna's Blue-Eyed Beast, and that this was not another trap set by Itzal.

Every few so often, for it had happened three times now, Itzal had made a spell and sealed it in the form of a wolf, and he set it to raid the black forest and try to find the camp of the Resistance. The wolf would bear the same elaborate markings as the Blue-Eyed Beast of the Queen, yet its eyes would be nothing but swirling black mist. The very first time this creature happened upon one of the members of the camp, it was welcomed with open arms, and led directly into the camp. Yet as soon as it smelled the blood of the Twili, it went into a berserker rampage, thrashing about and lashing its dagger-like teeth at anyone and everyone that got in its way. As it tried to escape to tell its master of what it had discovered, the Rangers had no choice but to assemble a blockade, trapping the wolf within the camp. Many lives were lost that day, but the dark wolf was at last destroyed. And that was the day they took _her_…

From that day on, when a wolf was sighted, a perimeter would be formed, and the wolf would be examined for the color of its eyes. As soon as that had been determined, the full brunt of the Rangers would descend upon the beast, killing it quickly to avoid what had happened on that fateful day.

There it was, right before them, the beast. It was slowly approaching Duska's younger brother, Ageroy.

"Its eyes!" shouted Duska. "Hurry, look at its eyes!"

Ageroy readied his throwing daggers. "Brother! Its eyes are…"

Too late. Within seconds, the wolf had sprinted a great distance and latched its teeth into Ageroy's arm. His blood dripped down his arm and into the mouth of the wolf. It unclenched its jaws and then struck at his leg, lacerating it deeply. Ageroy fell to the ground in pain, no longer able to stand on his leg because of the torn muscles. There was no way this could have been the Blue Eyed Beast of Queen Midna. It would have _never_ attacked a human like a Sheikah, and definitely not a Twili. Never.

Gynsei and another Ranger were suddenly upon the both of them, doing their best to wrestle the wolf from Gynsei's best friend. He grabbed one of his arrows from his quiver and stabbed it into the wolf's head. The blood was black…this was definitely Itzal's creature. The wolf fell to the ground shortly after the arrow had been thrust through its skull, and exploded in an array of black Twilight Matter.

Gynsei reached for Ageroy's good arm and helped him up. "You should get that wound dressed," he said as he hoisted Ageroy's good arm over his shoulder and grabbed him by the waist, helping him to stand despite his deep wounds.

"Take me to Theia. She's the only healer-witch we know, and she's got the antidote for the poison of Itzal's wolves," replied Ageroy.

"Theia? But she left this camp three years ago. No one knows where she is."

"Then we'll make it a mission. Please, Gynsei, without her I'll die…"

"No, Age…"

"Gynsei, be realistic. You've seen the work of this poison before. How long do I have?"

"A week without the antidote…at best," he choked out.

"I see…"

"Come on, let's get you inside. We'll tend to your wounds as best we can until we can find Theia. You'll just have to hold out until then," finished Gynsei as he helped Ageroy walk into the camp, the other Rangers following close behind.

Duska opened the door of the central building for the others. When Gynsei walked in, helping a bleeding, heavily perspiring Ageroy, Aura rushed towards them.

"What's happened?" she demanded as they laid Ageroy down on one of the beds.

"It seems that the wolf was not Queen Midna's Blue-Eyes Beast. We were too slow…it attacked Ageroy. Its poison now flows freely through his veins," answered Duska.

"What can we do to help him?" asked Aura sadly as she put her hand on his forehead.

But as soon as she put her hand on his forehead, there was a blinding flash of light and Aura was now seeing a whole different type of scenery. There was a little Sheikah boy who was holding the hand of who looked like a much younger version of Duska. There were quite a few adult Sheikah with them, and even some other Sheikah children. Were these small boys Duska and Ageroy as children? The one Aura thought was Ageroy was looking up at his older brother.

"Duska," he began in his little voice. "Where are we going?"

"I don't know, Age. Mom didn't say."

"So why don't you ask her?"

"I did, little brother. But all she said was that we would see in time."

"But it's getting awfully eerie. Look at the sky, how strange its color is."

"Yes, I see. I've never seen such a color in the daytime sky before…this musky orange. Do you think we've ended up in another dimension?"

"Oh no! Then how would we get home?"

"The way we came, of course. We'll just retrace out steps, that's all."

Then there was a flash and Aura was seeing yet another different setting. This time, Ageroy was a little older, ten years old at the most. There was another Sheikah boy with them, who was most likely Gynsei, and there was even a Sheikah girl with them, though Aura did not know who she might have been. Valefor was also there, though it could be easily seen that he was a good four years or so older than little Ageroy. Then Duska ran into the scene, more excited than Aura had ever seen him.

"Hey Guys! You won't believe this! They've found another one of the Twili people in the forest! Just like they found Val! Come on, let's go check it out!" The five of them ran off to go check out the newbie.

This Twili was a girl. She had short teal hair that was spiked up in the back, and she had beautiful purple eyes. She was as enthusiastic and curious as ever.

"Hello!" she said to the others. "My name's Pialé. Nice to meet you." Aura remembered having seen her in the central building earlier when they were all under alert. She was the one who had been staring at Valefor from the moment he'd walked in.

"Hello Pialé. Welcome to the group," said Valefor with a smile as he outstretched his hand to shake hers. Pialé's expression brightened significantly from its already vibrant enthusiasm as she took his hand and shook it.

"You know what they used to call me back home?" laughed Pialé. "They called me a _wolf_."

There was another bright flash, and the scene switched to what had happened outside with the wolf. Everything, from the moment the Rangers took their positions to when the wolf attacked Ageroy to the moment they killed it and brought Ageroy back.

There was another flash, and Aura suddenly realized that she hadn't been breathing. She blacked out momentarily and then abruptly ended up back in reality.

"Aura!" exclaimed a voice. It belonged to Theyd. He was holding her in his arms as she lay partially on the ground. "Aura, are you alright? You suddenly collapsed on the ground…"

"I saw…I saw everything that happened. I saw the wolf attack, all of it!" said Aura.

"What? What are you talking about?" This time the voice belonged to Rutaysu.

"I don't know how it happened, or even why, but I saw. I _know_. How he got attacked…how he came to be in this place in the first place…how he met Pialé…I don't even know her myself, but I saw…"

"What?" asked Duska. "How do you know all of this?"

"I told you already, I don't know. But there's something more important that we need to talk about first. The poison in Ageroy's body, the poison of the wolf…the antidote can only be made by the witch Theia. But she left this place three years ago. We need to find her, or he's going to die!"

Everyone in the room was staring at her by this point. The new girl was a psychic of some sort and the daughter of Queen Midna? She hadn't even been in the camp for half a day, and she somehow knew about the healer witch Theia and the girl Pialé, who she had scarcely even seen, and hadn't even met before. This was too weird.

"Does this mean it's time for another mission?" asked Valefor.

"I'm afraid so," answered Duska. "We can't just leave him to die. Theia is his only hope."

Then a new voice joined the conversation. It was the Twili girl who was from Ageroy's memories, Pialé. "If you're going to look for Theia, I'm going with you. I have some unfinished business with her and I needed a good excuse to go looking for her. You can't stop me from coming with you."

"Who else will come with us?" asked Duska.

"I will," said Aura.

"As will I," added Theyd.

"I will stay here and look after Ageroy," said Gynsei. "I'm sorry, but I can't go with you this time."

"That is alright, Gynsei," said Duska. "Stay here and take care of my brother. I can trust you with this task." Then he turned to Aura, Theyd and Pialé. "We leave in ten minutes. Get any provisions you need. We will be gone for no more than five days. Meet me at the base of the watchtower, and be prepared. Everyone, you are all dismissed."

With that, the crowd broke up and many of them did their best to resume their previous activities before the wolf came. Others just remained inside the central building, unwilling to leave after what had happened.

Aura stood up as Theyd let go of her, and she dusted herself off. "Looks like our adventure isn't quite over yet, is it?"

"Too bad, I was looking forward to a nice rest after everything that's happened. Not much we can do, seeing as we _did_ volunteer. We'll just have to make the best of thing, won't we?" replied Theyd.

"Let's just clean up and get going." With that, Aura walked towards the door and exited the building, and Theyd watched her as she walked all the way out.


End file.
